Events

Calendar of Australian Events

The calendar does not claim to be exhaustive. If you know of any forthcoming 'Australian' event, we would appreciate it if you could send us an email or write to us.

For subscribing to our regular event mailout, please send us an email with "Subscribing to Calendar of Events" in the subject line at austemb@aon.at.

Music: Simon Hewett conducting Coppelia

Ongoing in Vienna

Australian conductor Simon Hewett will debut at Vienna Volksopera to conduct the ballet Coppelia, written by Leo Delibes and ranking among the best ballets of all time. Following studies in Australia and Germany, Hewett served as principal conductor of Stuttgart Opera and is currently principal conductor of the Hamburg Ballet. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet Covent Garden in London, the Sydney Opera and Vienna State Opera. Coppelia will be performed several times until mid-March.

Exhibition: Jenny Watson’s Tall Tales and True

Ongoing until 2 February 2019, Vienna

Internationally-renowned Melbourne artist Jenny Watson has returned to Vienna to exhibit her new work, Tall Tales and True. One of Australia’s most important contemporary artists, her work represents an elaborate form of conceptual painting. Her imagery makes complex issues visible, with image ideas that are coherent and metaphors reduced to the essentials. Using simple components – unprimed textiles, figures left in aesthetic rudiments, and hand-written short texts – Watson creates complex stories from her figurative images, which provide a feminist and social critique and also diary-like personal insights into her life. Jenny Watson represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1993. The work shown at the current exhibition were developed during a stay in Japan.

Film: A Collected Gaze – Australian Handmade Experimental Film 1967-2018

6-7 February 2019, Vienna

The Österreichische Filmmuseum, Austria's cinematheque and museum/research centre for film, will be screening an Australian experimental film special featuring more than 50 years of Australian handmade experimental film. Three separate programs will explore the specific narratives that characterise Australian experimental film. The first, Play of Light, investigates the recurring significance of Australian light in creating both natural and artificial cinematic landscapes. The second, Painting with Motion, explores the nexus and direct manipulation of music, sound, light, colour and volume. The last, Artist Film Workshop, Melbourne, dedicates itself entirely to filmmakers; investigating the recently remerging interest in analogue film as a medium for visual arts. Each of the three programs will be introduced by curator Danni Zuvela, Australian writer, academic and co-director of the artists’ collective OtherFilm.

Art: Up To and Including with Helen Grogan

Ongoing until 8 March 2019, Krems an der Donau, Austria

Australian artist Helen Grogan will be presenting two installation-based works at her solo exhibition at the Galerie Stadtpark. The 2018 recipient of the Austrian Arts Residency Exchange uses sculpture to explore themes of perception and space – particularly the exhibition space itself. David Komary of the Galerie Stadtpark writes that her work “involves a subtle critique of the institutional conditions of the exhibition format”, while also seeking to “raise a kind of awareness of one’s own physical being”.